Encouraging developments

Today, as of 12:10 PM, I am on vacation for a week!!! This will be the first week of my two week vacation. My other week will be Aug. 1-5.

This week, of course, is so that I can spend the time with my fiancee, who is due to arrive in 2 days. I talked with her briefly tonight. She is now in Moscow with her papa, in preparation to fly out on Sunday afternoon, her time. They took a train to nearby Kazan, and then flew 4 hours to Moscow.

When I talked to her, they had just arrived at their hotel. She says Moscow is large and expensive. She says it is not a nice city. I suppose it is much like New York as far as being large and expensive. Though I don't know enough about life in New York City to judge how bad or good it is. She told me that she will be able to stay with me for 60 days, until September 10th which, I think is how long the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will allow her to stay under the visa that she has. If our relationship pans out as I think it will we will begin the process of retaining legal counsel for a fiancee visa while she is here.

She told me that her papa wanted to talk to me. So he talked and she typed, because he does not speak English and I do not speak Russian. We had a brief but nice conversation. He is concerned for his step daughter, because he considers her to be one of his riches, meaning she is very important to him. (I can tell from my conversations with her that they are very close). He also is concerned about her safety and well being, and I assured him that I would take good care of her when she is here. He said that they have spoken extensively about our wedding, should that eventually happen. He would like us to be married in Russia and I told him that I would like to have a wedding in both countries. He said that he respects me because I am not afraid to meet a woman from another country. He told me that she loves me very much and wants only happiness for her. I told him that I love her, too and replied that I will do everything I can to make her happy. I told him that she is the sweetest person that I know and I thanked him for sharing her with me. In closing he told me that we (my kids and I) are welcome in his house in Russia any time. I told him in turn that he is welcome in my house as well.